New LCD Flatscreen Concept: A Wedge of Plastic

SimianOverlord writes "The Register reports on an innovation in the field of flat panel LCD screens that promises cheaper screens with the same quality using existing manufacturing technology. A Flat Projection Display is created by bouncing light into a thin wedge of plastic from the bottom of the screen, at just the correct angle to allow the rebounded light to escape at the correct pixel. "We have to play around with the image to make sure that the pixels don't bunch up" explained Prof. Travis, the inventor. "If you don't do that the image can appear a little like an image reflected off water" The new technology has already attracted interest from a major TV maker, but don't expect them in your laptop until projector minaturization catches up."

HUD / glasses

[old_unicorn]

I wonder if this could work with HUD or for display injection into a pair of glasses? That would be neat - to have the image in your glasses / windscreen!

TV Windows?

[Blue_Nile]

Eventually then you'd be able to put these at the bottom of you window to use it as a tv then?

another term might be handy...

[ecalkin]

You might call this a prism. The concept of bouncing light off of the inside edge of a prism is what happens in the pentaprism mirror inside a slr camera.

The big advantage that I can see with this is that a reasonable quality plastic wedge/prism should be much cheaper to replace when it gets damaged. I'm sure the initial cost will still be high, but the expensive stuff can be a little more protected.

eric

HUD on fighter aircraft

[mikewas]

This sounds like the HUD on some fighter aircraft -- some have mirrors but others use a high quality chunk of optical glass. It sounds like this approach takes a low tech chunk of plastic and corrects for the abberations in the electronics.

Cheap silicon wins again -- it's been supplanting copper, now optics.

Uneven shrinkage & warpage = distortion

[G4from128k]

It sounds as if these folks think they know how to manufacture these displays, but have not actually done so yet. I predict they will discover that injection molding cannot create the large optically flat surfaces they need to create an undistorted image. Differences in the solidification time across the wedge will distort the shape of the surfaces and distort the images. Any differences in the temperature across the injected flow of resin will create internal ripples in the wedge. I also wonder if they have a way of controlling thermal distortions during use where the back of the wedge is warmer than the front and thus causes the wedge to curl.

Invention is easy. Manufacturing in high quantity, high quality, low price is the actual hard part. And undercutting the deflating price-performance curve of other well-established competing technologies is even harder. That said, I do wish them luck.

Watch out for patents because

[tod_miller]

They have developed an ill fitting sawtoothed double paned glass window that pushes more light further into the room, and less hits the area directly below the window, making offices lighter.

This is basically doing the same but replacing light with a projector source.

Imagine a specially moulded radially displaced set of panes, that had a central gun firing at them in a 180 arc, and the timing /angles were such that you got a perfect image.

Make sense?

the viewing angle would have to be compensated a bit...

Check new scientist for the story on lighter windows.

Re:official site:

[NanoGator]

Sorry to reply to my own post, but I thought I'd elaborate a little bit. I used to work for a company that sold a computer system along with some equipment they built. We hired a professional photographer come in and shoot photos of it in operation. He actually did a double exposure to make the LCD stand out more clearly. Took one shot with all the lights on, LCD off. Then he turned out the lights, turned the LCD on, and exposed the film again. Nice result. :)

Re:Instead of making it cheaper

[NanoGator]

"Why is this mod'd as Troll? It's a fair point - you wouldn't pay full whack for a new sofa (couch) that had holes in; no matter how small or far apart they were. Why should this be any different for LCD monitors? If I buy a monitor that advertises a 1600x1200 resolution then I expect every one of the pixels to be working; otherwise the item is defective."

It's a 'good point', but that's not what the topic is about. He was likely modded as troll for bitching about something that has little relation to this topic, not to mention that these folks don't have the power to fix the problem. Getting people riled up for no rational reason is more or less what trolling is.

As for your comment, there are a few things to consider:

1.) That's 1,920,000 individual pixels you want to work perfectly from a source that produces millions of displays. It's hard to do. Life sucks, sorry.

2.) You don't have to buy an LCD display if having one pixel misbehave is a deal breaker.

3.) Most would rather have cheaper displays at the expense of risk of a couple of dead pixels. If everybody decided that it was unacceptable, do you really think a 0 dead pixel standard would suddenly go into effect without costs going higher to maintain that level of quality?

Look, I agree, it sucks that LCDs have that standard. As I mentioned before, life sucks sometimes. However, it wouldn't hurt to be at least a little appreciative of the fact that they can't just snap their fingers and suddenly make it work. Seriously, one could make the same complaint about McDonald's not mass producing burgers that match the image in their commericals.

Actually seen something like this

[SmallFurryCreature]

Was an art piece. The tech used was those LCD panes that can turn opaque or transparent depending on power.

The "dress" had the panes on certain strategic locations if you know what I mean. The controller was setup in such a way that the panes were opaque most of the time but now and they would flash very fast transparent.

The trick of course being that your brain requires time to see things. Especially when you are not trying to look like a complete pervert. You clearly saw the thing become transparent but at least I was to slow to see anything.

So in one way the girl was nude. But because you couldn't actually see anything she wasn't.

Free Space Display

[Shanemoe]

http://www.io2technology.com/dojo/178/v.jsp Free Space Display, Project the Images into the Air... No need for bulky Screens... Think it will work?

English displays

[Hal_Porter]

I read a funny review of the Z88 a long time ago. The Z88 had a small LCD display "bought from the Japanese", but that was the result of an epic battle inside Sinclair. Clive Sinclair himself was quoted as saying "LCD's are rubbish, we have the only real portable display technology". This was based on the Sinclair pocket TV, which bent electron beams through 90 degrees with a big magnet. The journalist writing the review said that he saw a demonstration and "you placed your chin on a rest, and saw a ghostly green four lines of twenty characters floating in the infinite distance."

There was a memorable conversation with Alan Sugar who bought the Sinclair

Reviewer: Do you have the rights to the Pandora display?
AS: We have the rights to all the Sinclair patents
R: Do you plan any products based on Pandora?
AS: Have you seen it?
R: Yes.
AS: Well then.

Oddly, no Pandora based products were ever produced.